All Entries in the "Featured" Category
Early morning flooding hammers area towns
By Shawn Cunningham ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC Overnight rains and melting snows combined on Monday morning to cause flooding and close roads throughout the area. Luckily, it was also the first day of the spring break for local schools. At 6:24 a.m., a Weston firefighter asked the Keene Mutual Aid dispatcher to tone fire department […]
Car fire at CAES disrupts dismissal, no injuries
By Shawn Cunningham © 2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC A car fire at 3 p.m. threw the afternoon dismissal for Chester-Andover Elementary School into disarray while firefighters blocked the driveway to extinguish the blaze. As parents in cars lined up behind the school to pick up their children, the car at the front of the line […]
Chester Board to begin reviewing Town Plan changes
By Shawn Cunningham © 2019 Telegraph Publishing, LLC The Chester Select Board held its statutory Town Plan public hearing before beginning to review changes proposed by the Planning Commission at its Wednesday, April 3 meeting. There are substantial changes to four chapters of the plan – Utilities and Facilities, Education and Child Care Facilities, Energy […]
Tension between fire departments burbles up in Cavendish Select Board meeting
By Shawn Cunningham © 2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC The monthly Cavendish Select Board meeting was just a few minutes old on Monday when it almost erupted into an all-out range war over issues between the town’s two fire companies. In the public comment portion of the agenda, Amy Perry of the Proctorsville Fire Department asked […]
Board gives Powden 2-year contract, 4 percent raise before performance review
By Shawn Cunningham © 2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC The Two Rivers Supervisory Union board met Thursday night to work on the annual performance evaluation of Superintendent Meg Powden, but the real action took place in two executive sessions over the past two months. On Feb. 7, with Marilyn Mahusky as chair, the TRSU board offered […]
Derry board moves forward with feasibility study for water/waste water systems
By Bruce Frauman ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC The Londonderry Select Board on April 1 voted to move forward with an application for funding for a feasibility study on water supply and wastewater systems through the Agency of Natural Resources Engineering Planning Advance program. Planning Commission member Gail Mann said a needs assessment of water and […]
Lowell Lake group to begin researching park
By Bruce Frauman ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC The March 28 meeting of the Lowell Lake Working Group, held at Neighborhood Connections in Londonderry, revealed a nascent organization with lots of questions seeking answers. Robert Nied, a Chester resident and former town administrator of Londonderry, began pulling together the organization after the state Department of Forest […]
I-91 exit 6 north on-ramp to close for 2 weeks Detour on Route 5 to Springfield on-ramp
© 2019 Telegraph Publishing, LLC On Monday, April 15, 2019 at 7 a.m. the construction company working on the I-91 bridge over the Williams River in Rockingham will close the Exit 6 northbound on-ramp. The ramp will be closed for two weeks while it is reconstructed to its original grade. In the meantime motorists will […]
GMUSD board replaces Mahusky as chair
By Shawn Cunningham © Telegraph Publishing, LLC In a surprise move last Thursday night, March 21, the Green Mountain Unified School District board voted 5-3 to replace board chair Marilyn Mahusky of Chester with Joe Fromberger from Andover. The move came at the board’s reorganization session after Town Meeting Day in which newcomer Lois Perlah […]
GM junior’s musical composition to be performed by VSO members
By Shawn Cunningham ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC This is an especially busy week for Alex Beshay. Between this Wednesday — today — and next Tuesday, the Green Mountain junior will participate in a four-day national conference choir in Columbus, Ohio, then work with members of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra as it prepares to perform one […]
Derry board delays traffic ordinance, taps planning consultant
By Bruce Frauman ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC The Londonderry Select Board on Monday, March 18 once again postponed its vote on the proposed Traffic and Parking Ordinance. Board chair Jim Ameden questioned whether a list of all stop signs was required in the ordinance and whether any new stop signs would require a vote by […]
Explosion, fire destroy guest house at South Derry compound
By Shawn Cunningham ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC Doug Stevens had just backed his truck into the sugar house on Winhall Hollow Road in Londonderry when one of several buildings on the property exploded. While firefighters were dousing the flames, Stevens, who is caretaker of the property, told The Telegraph that he heard a huge “baah-room” […]
Tension between fire departments extends to Select Board appointments in Cavendish
By Shawn Cunningham © 2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC Select board reorganization meetings are usually pretty routine affairs in which the board sets its meeting dates, picks a chair and appoints the many – usually unpaid – volunteers to jobs like representing the town on the solid waste district board. It’s not particularly glamorous or controversial. […]
Chester board notes historic moment First time two women have served on select board
By Shawn Cunningham © 2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC The reorganization meeting after each year’s select board election is seldom exciting unless you find the reappointment of the fence viewers and the weigher of coal to be riveting. But Wednesday night’s edition of the Chester Select Board was the exception. Shortly after the meeting began, board […]
After wrangling, Derry voters approve articles
By Bruce Frauman ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC Under moderator Doug Friant’s guidance, Town Meeting in Londonderry on Tuesday flew through 15 articles with only a scattering of “nays” and some questions about the ever decreasing State Police presence over and above their regular patrols. But then the meeting encountered lots of turbulence as it considered […]
Weston voters OK paving, dam removal funds
By Shawn Cunningham © 2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC The 2019 Weston Town Meeting got it just about right. The town business was taken care of quickly and efficiently, there were a couple of opportunities for community celebration and just enough political wrangling to keep everyone’s interest. In the end, all the articles passed and the […]
Cavendish voters OK tax exemption for Fletcher Farm, Black River Health Center
By Shawn Cunningham © 2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC Every town meeting is different and it can be hard to predict which articles will sail past and which will spark debate. But more often than not, the time spent on one or two articles is out of proportion with the amount they will cost. True to […]
Dakin, Whalen, Gustafson take Chester Select Board seats; road bond issue passes in Chester
By Shawn Cunningham © 2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC Veteran office holder Leigh Dakin cruised to a write-in victory over political newcomer Scott Blair, co-owner of the Southern Pie Company and the Main Street Coffee & Scoop Shoppe, on Tuesday evening making the composition of the Chester Select Board 40 percent female for the first time. […]
GM School District budget OK’d by 70 votes CAES assistant principal funded in $13 million spending plan
By Shawn Cunningham © 2019 Telegraph Publishing, LLC The Green Mountain Unified School District budget was approved by the voters of Andover, Baltimore, Cavendish and Chester in Australian balloting on Tuesday. The count was 423 to 353 with a margin of victory of 70 votes or 9 percent. The budget gives Chester-Andover Elementary an assistant […]
Chester voters establish emergency reserve fund, pass climate resolution
By Leah M. Cunningham and Cynthia Prairie ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC More than 120 Chester residents turned out on Monday night for Town Meeting, passing 21 articles, including setting up a town reserve fund and a much discussed climate resolution, and tabling one before adjourning the meeting after two and a half hours. Tabled was […]
